Romania: Cezar: I got carried away with the Eurovision Song Contest!

Opera singer Cezar has spoken to the Romanian press about representing his country at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.

The respected countertenor, known to music fans simply as The Voice, surprised many by his decision to compete in the Romanian selection for Eurovision 2013.

I agreed to participate because I like the song, he explained in his interview with revistatango.ro. I wanted to tackle a new genre.

Cezar explains that in the world of opera, lives and destinies are determined through music. As is the case with the Eurovision Song Contest. The 3 minutes (of the song) can change the destiny of a man and a nation, he says, before adding how pleased he was by the Romanian public’s enthusiasm for his pop-opera fusion, It’s my life. The great Romanian soprano, Angela Gheorgiu was also enthusiastic about the song, being among the first to offer her congratulations to Cezar upon his victory at the country’s selection process.

But victory at the Romanian selection offered Cezar more than the opportunity to change his destiny and that of his nation. It was also a chance to introduce the broader public to the countertenor voice, which was achieved historically by the castration of pre-pubescent boy singers. People’s perception of this music is better than in pervious years, he tells revistatango.ro. I try to tell people about the time (when countertenor voices were most popular). It was a very important period in the history of music. The singers of those times were kind of pop stars, like Michael Jacksons…idolised, deified…It’s great that I can bring alive this rich culture for today.

He goes on to comment on how the world of opera has changed, and how the way a singer looks is so much more important now than it has been in the past. In 2013, we must realise that image plays an important role. But for Cezar, image and voice have equal importance. I try to get people to close their eyes and dream of listening to my voice and then they open their eyes and see there is a pleasant physical presence there, too.

During the interview, Cezar speaks openly about his father who worked as a flautist and has sadly passed away, and his mother, who accompanied the singer to Malmö for the Eurovision Song Contest in May this year. She was in tears, he says. Happy tears.

Eurovision gave me great satisfaction, he concludes of his experience. Indeed, his 13th placing in the final is something to be proud of.

As for the future, Cezar has plans to release a couple of singles. One is a ballad about the end of a relationship, and the other is what he describes as ‘cosmic space music’.

And as for his personal life, there’s not much room for it in his busy calendar…This year I got carried away with the Eurovision Song Contest!